French alphabets

The French alphabet is based on the 26 letters of the Latin alphabet, uppercase and lowercase, with a 5 diacritics and 2 orthographic ligatures.

A - /ɑ/
B - /be/
C - /se/
D - /de/
E - /ø/
F - /ɛf/
G - /ʒe/
H - /aʃ/
I - /i/
J - /ʒi/
K - /ka/
L - /ɛl/
M - /ɛm/
N - /ɛn/
O - /o/
P - /pe/
Q - /ky/
R - /ɛʁ/
S - /ɛs/
T - /te/
U - /y/
V - /ve/
W - /dubləve/ "double v"
X - /iks/
Y - /igʁɛk/ "i grec"
Z - /zɛd/

Diacritics

Usual diacritic marks are acute ( ´ ), grave ( ` ), circumflex ( ˆ ), diaeresis (called tréma in French) ( ¨ ), and the cedilla ( ¸ ). The main combinations are: à â ç é è ê ë î ï ô û ù ü ÿ. Diacritics have no impact on the primary alphabetical order.

Ligatures

The following two ligatures have orthographic value:

* œ (e dans l'o or o, e collés/liés): e.g. œil, fœtus, bœuf (vs. moelle, coexister, minoen)
* æ (e dans l'a or a, e collés/liés): e.g. tænia, ex æquo (vs. maestro, paella)

For determining alphabetical order, these ligatures are treated like the sequences oe and ae.